Subscribe

The UIAA and Avalanche Transceiver Standards

By

Jason Albert

Avalanche transceivers are a tool we rely on in the backcountry. The UIAA plans on setting basic standards for transceivers.

Avalanche transceivers are a tool we rely on in the backcountry. The UIAA plans on setting basic standards for transceivers.

  Some people cringe at the thought of oversight, others exhale with relief. Considering the gear we rely on for safe mountain travel, oversight is often a good thing. Climbers, mountaineers, and alpinists are likely familiar with the UIAA stamp of approval on much of their gear. The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, or UIAA,…

Responses

  1. Travis

    When can I use my phone as a beacon? Our phones have exceptional capability that’s beyond the realm of what’s possible with beacons. Seems logical that there’s a future where our phones have a native capability that can be repurposed for avy search or an app is built specifically for it. Any ideas from those more hardwear focused if this is a realistic premise?

    1. Jason Albert

      Good question Travis. I’m sure all of us who purchased an iPhone 1.0 thought these devices might double as a transceiver someday. I’ll leave the conversation regarding EMI and circuitry to those better qualified. My concern would be the power supply/batteries and corresponding longevity on a phone. I’ve had bad luck historically with phone batteries. (Although I know many folks carry a small external battery to recharge a phone in the field.)

    2. Slim

      I am not sure if that would be desirable. Most of us have our phones out quite a bit, for navigation and photos. This means that there is a (relatively) large risk of having lost or damaged your phone, in case of an emergency.

      1. Jason Albert

        Agreed Slim—add all of what you noted to my concerns. Some interesting conversations out there regarding alternate technologies. Maybe I’d like a smaller, lower profile transceiver, but I want it to do one job (search/locate a victim and send a signal) and do that job well with a minimal amount of fuss and confusion.

      2. Travis

        I get it, but I think there’s a quantum leap waiting for us in terms of capability. Imagine if you could open the app and see the precise location of everyone in your group regardless of the situation-a la AirTags. Then in an emergency you open the app and ski to the person closest who is buried. You tie this back to the smart watch they are wearing and you don’t have to worry about the use case of taking your camera out as a map/camera. Further, you could potentially see the blood oxygen levels and heart rate of the individual. Allowing you to focus on individuals that weren’t killed (morbid I know) by trauma. Now, I would love it if Mammut, Ortovox, Pieps, et al would build these capabilities into their own devices, but the market isn’t big enough to sustain it. In terms of hardware, we’re going to see the next level of innovation come from outside the ski community. The development costs and scale needed to bring costs down are too great for our niche to sustain the innovation from a hardware perspective, software on the other hand is another story. Look for disruption in this space. My only fear is that UIAA standards will prohibit this from becoming viable, as it will structure the standards around the existing form factor and stifle innovation. Doesn’t have to be this way, but it could if the standards aren’t written with innovation in mind. I’d hate for us to lock ourselves into outdated tech when lives could be saved.

        1. Jason Albert

          Lots of great points and excellent real-world scenarios to consider here. It will be interesting to note how these standards, once released, skew either towards the innovation or existing form factor norms.

        2. Travis

          Note, I’m not suggesting air tags would work. I don’t believe it would in a burial situation, frequency is too low. Just drawing an analogy to the search UI of Air Tags. Better thing would be, can a smartphone detect a beacon. Then using your beacon for search is the backup.

    3. bruised

      I’m not an electronics expert but my guess why they aren’t combo’ed with a phone is due to the antenna’s and expectation of performance around them. Phones have way more computing power, larger screens and super tiny antennas compared to beacons but work at different frequencies and have different working conditions. It seems that in order to hit that ~60m distance or ~0.1m fine search under snow, there is just a certain size antenna that works based on what is available currently with materials, design and tuning. They also need to fit 3 of whatever antenna’s they design along x,y,z. Look at the pieps micro (I think that’s the smallest fully functional beacon) it has a tiny form factor but only has a 40m range.

      Using bluetooth is an interesting idea but airtags only have a realistic 10m of range they are just transmitting to whatever is nearby and then getting the signal processed at an apple server somewhere. Bluetooth can have higher ranges than that, but the larger the distance the less data that can be processed. Maybe beacon signal processing takes enough data that bluetooth isn’t attractive?

      I could totally see someone making a paired beacon + phone combo that is smaller overall, a la garmin in reach mini + phone. Where the “beacon” is just the antenna’s and electronics to send data to your phone and your phone is the processor and user interface. Could maybe have it clipped directly to your phone or it stays in your pocket and you just pull out the phone for search.

  2. Travis

    Also, another thought. When can my beacon be a drone that can scan the area of a football field in seconds and I can ski to the first marked spot and be digging asap. In my opinion the hardwear and software are ready for this, there’s simply not enough market demand to make the cost of spinning up the supply chain and manufacturing for our niche sport. One day this is where things will be, most likely for SAR first and then it will trickle down to the consumer. I imagine it will have a commercial use first, and then be co-opted for our sport. Hopefully the UIAA standards also promote innovation and don’t lock us into the tech we have today.

Leave a Reply

Latest Features